Day 10

 Day 10

Part of recognizing my own (new) limitations is letting go of some of my ideas about this blog. I imagined that I'd be blogging daily, keeping a log of my darling boy's life. Now that my life consists almost wholly of breastfeeding and sleeping (more of the former, less of the latter), I have to give myself some room. So I'll start here. Rather than worry about "Oh, I've missed 9 days!" or "I need to write the birth story first!!", I'll start here and work my way back eventually.

Things I've noticed about August:

- He's an easy baby. He only cries when he's hungry, and even then it's a half-hearted "please feed me" rather than an angry cry. I accidentally poked him in the nose (ouch!) and he reacted by letting out a little cry and then nuzzling for my boob. It seems he has his father's easy-going nature (thank goodness!).

- He reclines with his right arm behind his head. It's almost automatic.

- He always sneezes twice in a row. Never once. Never three times. Always twice.

- When he's hungry at night, he gets a bit desperate. He flails his arms around and pushes and shoves until that little gaping mouth is full. This has earned him the nickname "Drunk Monkey." I seriously have to wrestle his little arms down to get a successful latch because otherwise he's shoving fingers in the way or pushing the boob away... He's an obstinate little drunk. 

- He knows more about breastfeeding than I do. From the moment he was born he latched on like a pro. The nurses kept exclaiming that we didn't need any help, we were pros. Not me, him. He's so good that I can just prop him up with blankets shoved behind his back and head and go totally handsfree at night. My poor iPhone is getting a workout. That battery will be dead soon. I'm thinking about attempting knitting again. If it keeps me awake while he feeds, it will be a win-win. 

So, a little about today, since this is supposed to be a log.

Yesterday I made a concerted effort to sleep. I stayed in bed until 11am (though Gus was not cooperative after 9:30) and then napped from 6-7pm.  I felt energized for the long night. The longest stretch of sleep I got was about 1.5hrs, but I felt good. I fed him at 9am and decided it was worth it to go back to sleep. Totally worth it. I felt amazing and almost like myself. My wonderful friend Jennifer called me not long after I woke up and came over to keep me company. She showed me the side-lying position for breastfeeding. I might give it a try tonight. It makes me a little nervous (don't want to roll over on the kiddo) but it might be worth it if it buys me some sleep.

After Jen left, Carl came home. We finished watching The Hangover. We rented the movie nearly a week ago thinking, "We have all the time in the world to watch a movie! Maternity leave!" - we maxed out our 7-day rental, which is so unlike us. Now that we're parents, we've become the people NetFlix was created for. How strange. Then we took a family nap. It was lovely. When we nap during the day, August sleeps between us. Neither of us are heavy enough naptime sleepers to worry about forgetting him. It's a lovely way to bond as a family. We got a good 1.5-2hr nap which was much-needed by all. Then leftovers from a delicious dinner generously shared by Jeff and Melissa Jones last night, a DVR'd episode of House and then a smoothie preparred by Chef Carl. Carl recently discovered the handheld blender his mom gave me for Christmas. Yum!

Now it's time for feeding and bed. :)